Category — Nutrition

Court Street Urban Farm. Land sits next to the Krueger-Scott Mansion, an 1888 landmark once owned by a city beer baron. We’ve been able to produce over 15,000 pounds of produce during the course of one growing season! Click on image for larger file.

The conservancy recruits teenagers from all Newark high schools as paid interns. They work 25- to 30-hour weeks in the summer and 10- to 15-hour weeks during the school year.

By Jane Primerano
NJ Spotlight
Nov 30, 2016

Excerpt:

Besides the Court Street farm, a larger parcel on Hawthorne Street functions as a community garden where residents lease their own plots. There are 200 4- by 8-foot raised beds that are leased by residents who pay $10 a year and receive $20 worth of seeds, according to director of Urban Agriculture Justin Allen.

Robin Dougherty, the executive director of the conservancy, said the not-for-profit group would love to expand the reach of its Urban Agriculture program, but an economic boom in the city may present difficulties.

The in-city food production is of benefit to a city like Cape Town, particularly in terms of delivering cheaper food and bringing greater dietary diversity and nutritional benefit. The discussion of Cape Town’s in-house food supply focuses on commercial agriculture and the form and fate of the unique productive agriculturally-zoned areas within the boundaries of the City of Cape Town (Chapter 4) and urban agriculture (Chapter 5). A constant theme is the tension between the valuation of agricultural land in terms of its

contribution to food security versus alternative means of valuation such as the argued need for land for development and housing options. Detailed information is available on this element of the food system and its analysis prompts the following conclusions:

• There is vital agricultural production within Cape Town. While there is large-scale production of grapes and other fruit for export, there is also high production of staple vegetables and livestock, both of which support more local consumption;

The La Mesa Verde program in San Jose helps low-income families to establish their own vegetable gardens. A pilot study found that gardening in either a community or backyard space made a significant contribution to gardeners’ daily vegetable intake.

“Gardening made a substantial contribution to vegetable intake regardless of socioeconomic background or previous gardening experience,” said co-author Lucy Diekmann, a postdoctoral researcher in the Food and Agribusiness Institute at Santa Clara University.

As of 2013, 42 million American households were involved in growing their own food either at home or in a community garden plot. The purpose of this pilot study was to document the extent to which gardeners, particularly less affluent ones, increase their vegetable intake when eating from either home or community garden spaces. Eighty-five community gardeners and 50 home gardeners from San Jose, California, completed a survey providing information on demographic background, self-rated health, vegetable intake and the benefits of gardening.

The 15th garden, it’s an urban gardening project that provides food for people living in Syrian cities that are under siege. Currently there are 30 of the gardens in 17 different besieged cities throughout Syria.

By Bezdomny
Shareable
Apr 29, 2016 (Must see! Mike)

Excerpt:

The project started with a group of Zabadani women who needed seeds to grow food, yet nothing was allowed to enter or exit the city. At that time, Zabadani was still under siege by both Assad forces and Hezbollah. Siege warfare is brutal and turns a city into a prison. To give an example of how severe the blockade was, Abdallah says, not even the UN was able to retrieve dying patients from the city in order to give them proper care. And there is no shortage of patients in Syria, just this week the Assad regime attacked the rebel held side of Aleppo which destroyed a vital hospital and resulted in at least 50 deaths.

In response to the Zabadani Women’s call for support, a network of German farmers collected heritage seeds and money in a show of solidarity with Syrian farmers, and sent the seeds to Lebanon (which is just across the border from Zabadani). From Lebanon the supplies made their way to Zabadani through an underground network of activists who risked their lives to get the seeds through the blockade.

Located on seven acres in the heart of Houston’s historic Sunnyside neighborhood, the new Hope Farms will use organic methods to generate significant food crops in the midst of one of the city’s largest food deserts, while training military veterans to become successful agri-entrepreneurs.

Hope Farms is a critical component in achieving Recipe for Success Foundation’s mission to change the way children understand, appreciate and eat their food and to mobilize the community to provide healthier diets for children.

An alternative approach to urban agriculture where city bio-wastes are used to farm algae and fungi, which are in turn fed to insects. In turn, the crickets are processed into an edible flour

by Christine Leu
Canadian Architect
Apr 18, 2016

Excerpt:

Jakub Dzamba, a University of Toronto graduate and Ph.D. candidate designed the Reactor. It consists of a series of interconnected, clear chambers from which crickets may feed and grow. The Reactor is well-sealed to prevent the escape of the wayward cricket into our world.

The architectural language of the Reactor could be described as “antfarm-Modernist.” A large, clear, central atrium with detachable clear pods at the sides to accommodate a variety of programmes, or in this case, different bio-wastes. The density of the insects per square inch is evocative of urban living, and reminiscent of maximizing return on investment for repeating condominium units in the sky.

We know, the idea can seem surprising at first. But the insects as food movement is gaining steam. The United Nations believes it has major potential to address the food security issues resulting from climate change and dwindling resources. The market has also responded. More and more companies are developing cricket brownies, crackers, and energy bars!

Everyone is talking about food. Chefs and food critics are celebrities. “Locavore” and “freegan” have earned spots in the dictionary. Popular books and films about food production and consumption are exposing the unintended consequences of the standard American diet. Questions about the principles and values that ought to guide decisions about dinner have become urgent for moral, ecological, and health-related reasons. So, as we begin a New Year and perhaps the inevitable resolution of ‘new diet new me’, which ethical corner will you be in at the dinner table?

In Philosophy Comes to Dinner, twelve philosophers—some leading voices, some inspiring new ones—join the conversation, and consider issues from the sustainability of modern agriculture, to consumer complicity in animal exploitation, as well as the pros and cons of alternative diets.

Part engaging conversation, part comprehensive fieldwork, Growing a Life demonstrates just how influential educational and community gardening programs can be for young teens. Follow author Illène Pevec as she travels from rural Colorado to inner city New York, agrarian New Mexico to Oakland, California, in order to study youth gardening and the benefits it contributes to at-risk teen lives. Extensive research, supplemented by beautifully candid interviews with students, illustrate the life altering physical and mental benefits that mentored gardening programs can provide.

Dona Ana Community College public health students Jasmine Franzoy, 20, and Alyssa Berrington, 26, demonstrate how they tend to large potted plants located at the downtown mall on Monday. For six hours a week they students plant, prune and harvest food in 58 large pots in the area.(Photo: Robin Zielinski — Sun-News)

La Semilla Food Center has partnered with the students to promote healthier eating. “I love working working with the public and getting the pots adopted.”

By Beth Waters
For the Sun-News
November 9, 2015

Excerpt:

The students have partnered with La Semilla Food Center and are tasked with tending 58 oversized planters full of fruit, herbs, vegetables and flowers, hoping to promote urban agriculture to the public. The collaboration is part of a DACC health class, matching students to nonprofits, taught by Amy Collins, associate professor of public health.

“As a society, we are use to seeing our food packaged, to see plastic and cellophane around our fruit and vegetables,” Collins explains. “So having an understanding of where food comes from is difficult for a lot of people.”

The Home Gardening and Nutrition training material was made by FAO in partnership with the Lesotho Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) and all members of the Home Gardening and Nutrition Working Group (NGOs, UN agencies and Government institutions)

By Elizabeth Tsehlo
FAO
Nov 2015 (Must see. Mike)

Two different tools were produced: posters and handouts.

For trainer’s use (teachers, extension staff, NGOs), 400 kits combining the four posters and a portable stand have been produced in PVC A0 size (200 in Sesotho, 200 in English).

For communities, students, farmers and public in general, 60,000 kits of four handouts each have also been printed in A1 size (30,000 in Sesotho and 30,000 in English). These handouts include the information provided in the posters and additional related information on the reverse side of each handout.

The handouts have been distributed to approximately 300 schools (primary and high schools), and are being distributed to all 68 agricultural Resource Centres in Lesotho. Copies are also given for free to all members of the Home Gardening and Nutrition Working Group including various ministries, institutions, university, UN agencies and NGOs. FAO Emergency and Resilience Programme beneficiaries – 18,500 vulnerable farming families in total – will also receive one kit through the resource centres.

“I have been working on a documentary short on urban foraging and wild edibles. It’s been a wonderful experience to talk with foragers about the importance of this activity and to see their passion. We plan to expand the film in the future.” Josh Crosby